A young person has just offered me their seat on the tram. I’m not sure how I feel about this.

Also in opinion, research policy expert Richard Jones writes that while the changes being made by UKRI are the biggest since the 1980s, change is inevitable given the country’s economic position—and the research community must rise to the challenge. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

That which does not destroy you makes you stronger (but the line is fine…).

The way UK govt funds science is in the midst of a major transition, with creation of a much more direct link between government priorities & UKRI research funding. My attempt to set in context the biggest upheaval in UK science funding policy since the 1980s: softmachines.org?p=3252

Some thoughts on the select committee appearance by the boss of UKRI, Ian Chapman yesterday. It’s a long watch but can be seen here: parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/... Thread 🧵

I was hoping that hiking would relieve Physics stress this weekend. Instead (thanks to a stonking blister, a flare-up of an injury I thought had healed, and a never-ending cold), I'm stuck indoors, arguing with strangers on the internet (about changes to the Spine race final time limit).

Not classes, but the final exams which determined my degree classification were Physics 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. There were also 2 options. I choose Astrophysics and Particle Physics. And instead of final year labs I did a Theoretical Physics exam on a Saturday morning after all the other exams.

OOOOH Researchfish Is going extinct 🐡🐟🐠 help.researchfish.com/en_US/resear...

Full story by @isaacbarbosa1.bsky.social and me in today's Research Fortnight www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

CosmoSlider (a new CMB visualization tool by Andreas Nygaard, Steen Hannestad and Thomas Tram) looks really useful for teaching cosmology: aarhuscosmology.github.io/CosmoSliderW...

Arctic preparations: metal bottles wrapped in Duck tape (purple, so hopefully it’s obvious whose they are).

Quote post gif with a clue where you’re from.

Sad that I’m missing the UK Astroparticle Physics meeting in Manchester today, because of the worst cold I’ve had in years. Especially since I spent several hours wrestling with our new ‘digital core’ to buy my train ticket…

Good day for my two favourite 'small' sumo wrestlers: ferocity from Fujinokawa... bsky.app/profile/sumo...

Retired or soon to be retired UK HE or IRO researcher, or 'retired' but still holding PT position up to 0.5FTE? Awards of £k-£24 k available from @leverhulme.ac.uk to support your research. The deadline is 4pm 29 January 2026.

Arctic-style adventures are being had.

Hoping that Storm Goretti doesn’t mess up getting to Aviemore for this weekend’s Arctic training course. But if I get stranded somewhere I do at least have all the gear required to survive for a few days.

Visited the Nine Ladies stone circle and tower on Stanton moor, got snizzled on…

A beautiful afternoon/evening for a trek to Teversal with my tyre:

Spent today in my happy place (out on the hills talking to sheep).

Christmas Lego built (while watching Rogue One).

In between bouts of guinea pig syringe feeding, I managed a 4 hour walk with a rucksack full of conference proceedings as ballast.

Was supposed to be in Brighton this weekend with the OH (seeing David Devant & His Spirit Wife, and celebrating our 30th 'anniversary'). Instead, we're at home trying to get a very poorly guinea pig to eat properly.

And we're off! UUK's Research & Innovation conference with panels on REF2029 are now underway, as pause transitions into the forward march toward November 2028, and beyond. 1/n

Lunch woes episode 3: belatedly discovered that at 5.45 am this morning, I took the OH's lunch from the fridge rather than mine (I'm vegetarian, he's not).

Friday: lost my lunch in my office. Today: accidentally attempted to eat some Blu Tack.

I like the women’s area at the gym (mainly because the squat rack is always free). But this mural really irritates me, and I’d like to replace beauty with endurance (or even maths…).

Sunrise from my office. My body had been coping well with the 9am lectures and commuting hell, but now in ‘hanging on by the finger tips until the end of term’ mode.

Tobi guinea pig wants to talk to the manager:

8 months later and (despite Tobi’s initial reticence and Rosie’s over-exuberance) they’re increasingly acting like a little old married couple:

WTF!?

Twice recently, I've had emails from journalists asking questions or asking to chat. Both times I spent time I could ill afford to spend replying, answering the questions or saying I'm happy to chat (with caveats about my expertise) & offering potential times. Neither replied to me.

My new bedside espresso machine made getting out of bed at stupid o'clock this morning much easier. Unfortunately, it wasn't much help with clearing ice off the car at -4 degrees in the dark.

My calendar for today was nearly empty, so I naively thought it was going to be a research day. In fact, I've spent the entire day acting on emails, and there are still some remaining moles which need wac-ing.

'Kendall told a UKRI event on 24 November that nearly a fifth of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s budget will be earmarked for research aligned with Labour’s missions, with £8 billion of UKRI’s £38.6 billion budget over the next five years “targeted towards the UK’s national priorities”.' 1/3

Trying to relax with Himalayan singing bowls, and Rosie guinea pig decides to squeak along…

CERN Symposium on History of Particle Physics Session on particle astrophysics & cosmology: Videos (newly released) + slides Rocky Kolb - Cosmological particle physics Michael Turner - Particle dark matter Slides, videos later? Alan Guth - Inflation Jaco de Swart - Particle Cosmology

The gym is not my natural home (and the probability of me wearing ‘scrunch bum’ shorts is identically zero) but watching the small numbers I’m lifting get slowly bigger is satisfying.

It's careers week for 3rd years, so no 9 am lectures (and 5.45 am alarms...) for me this week. Instead, I've made my annual 'why theorists should care about experiments' cameo appearance in the 1st year lab lectures and am giving a talk about dark matter to my local astronomical society tonight.

List of links to UK Cosmology PhD projects updated for 2025/26 admissions: anne-green.net/physics/UKCo...

Pros of Japanese trousers: 1) they're the right length, without me having to chop inches of material off the bottom, 2) they fit both my thighs and waist (usually trousers which go around my quads fall off my waist). Cons: I need a size large...

As a journal editor, finding referees for papers has got much harder (and more time-consuming). It's become common: i) to have to try 4-6 people before someone says yes, ii) for postdocs to decline as they're too busy.

Very fun afternoon of sumo (with Hello Kitty)

Walking from Japan House to the Royal Albert Hall and spotted Takerufuji and (number 1 favourite small rikishi) Midorifuji coming out of their hotel!

My tire likes collecting leaves, which helpfully increases the drag. It also attracts a lot of attention. One old chap suggested his wife could sit on it to increase the load…

Beautiful afternoon for a walk with my tyre:

Finished a first draft of the slides for my talk (on observational probes of primordial black hole dark matter) in the online ZOOMing in on primordial black holes seminar series on Monday. Including: i) some (trivial but often forgotten) thoughts on the interpretation of observations.

Arrived at this morning's first 9am lecture early, to make sure I had plenty of time to address any technology glitches (lecture capture, student engagement software...). It was all fine, but the sliding whiteboard was so far above my head I could only reach it by kneeling on a high wheely chair...

Never thought (as a theorist) that I'd be filling in spreadsheets about RF coils and gas regulators...

At the very hot and humid world athletics championships. After some crowd pleasing Japanese front running in the men’s 10 000m, Europeans finished 1st and 3rd. Next up the 100m finals.